1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for achieving and retrieving data from electronic devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cellular telephone handsets and PDAs (Personal Data Assistants) have had a similar evolution in that cell phone functions and applications have been growing rapidly. Cell phones may be personalized for contact lists, ring tones, text style, initial screen images, date and time display, and many other standard functions. In fact, in GSM phones there are over eighty entries for user-personalized data. In addition, personal data in the form of phone book entries, stored images, audio files, favorite radio stations, calendar and appointment books, financial data (electronic wallets), and stocks to watch are now being stored in the cell phone.
With such a wealth of stored data, a problem arises if the phone is lost or stolen, or ceases to function from electronic failure or dropping of the phone. In these events, all of the data may be lost and it can be extremely difficult and time consuming, if not impossible, to recreate the data in a new device.
While some personal devices such as PDAs are routinely backed-up or synchronized with a personal computer (PC), a PC is not always available in the time or place where the phone is lost. Most cell phones do not have a standard synchronization mechanism, and new standards such as SyncML only handle portions of the user data, require an Internet connection and account, and a synchronization PC. These services also require a high speed data connection, which may be expensive and underutilized by the average consumer.
Other patents appear to try to make the data stored in mobile devices more transportable. Tsai (U.S. Pat. No. 6,128,372) and Baranowski (WO01/43408 A1) appear to describe devices that may be attached to telephones to transfer and store data. Jacobs (WO98/34203) appears to describe a cell phone that stores financial account numbers and teaches an interface to allow the numbers to be selected for use in transactions and transmitted to banking systems for verification. Jonsson (U.S. Pat. No. 5,583,917) appears to show how user service profiles, i.e. the provider's record of services available to the user, can be stored and moved around a wireless network to provide faster connection times. Kumagai (U.S. Pat. No. 6,075,983) appears to suggest how the personal data for several operators may be stored within a wireless device and selected. Reference JP-A-21884/1994 appears to describe how a master machine connected via a cable channel can download profile settings for individual operators to a slave machine. Henrick (U.S. Pat. No. 5,940,752) appears to describe remote programming of data from a PC to a wireless terminal.
The references above fail to provide an archival method for loading and reloading cell phone, PDA, or wireless device wherein:
No additional devices, software, or computers are required of the user.
All interaction, user interfaces, and control are supplied by the wireless device.
Data is first uploaded out of the wireless device to populate the entries in the database.
Data stored in a remote network may be altered and/or downloaded into another device.
The remote network is independent of the actual wireless terminal, wireless network, or data transport layer used to make the connection.